A beautiful, pastoral gesture, but Church teaching must change!
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"A Catholic high school in Portland, Oregon, made history this week by instituting a policy that forbids employment discrimination against gays and lesbians.
St. Mary’s Academy adopted the policy after its earlier decision to rescind a job offer to Lauren Brown, an academic counselor, triggered a backlash. Brown was offered the job in April, and over the summer, she told a top school official that she was gay.
That's when things changed. According to documents obtained by a local news source, the school offered Brown a year of pay in exchange for her agreeing not to sue and to stay quiet about the matter. Brown turned down the offer. When current students, alumni and donors learned about the story, they were outraged...
According to Willamette Week, Brown has not been offered her job back because the school already gave it to someone else. But Friedhoff says the school wants to offer "reconciliation
Regardless of the reasoning, the school now stands as an important test case. Can a Catholic institution deviate from church doctrine and remain Catholic? LGBT Catholics everywhere hope so. “This is a landmark,” said Francis DeBernardo of the New Ways Ministry, an LGBT Catholic group. “I don’t know of a single other school that has stood up in this way.”
Bridget Mary's Response;
This policy should be the Roman Catholic Church's policy in every area. Teachers in many places have to take loyalty oaths, stating that they comply with church teaching even though such a stance violates their consciences. The Church teaches primacy of conscience in all things, yet, the hierarchy too often punishes those who disobey church teaching by firing them from their jobs. Thus, church officials violate church teaching. Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP, www.arcwp.org
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